JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and generate. It is based on a subset of the JavaScript Programming Language, Standard ECMA-262 3rd Edition – December 1999. JSON is a text format that is completely language independent but uses conventions that are familiar to programmers of the C-family of languages, including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python, and many others. These properties make JSON an ideal data-interchange language.

In a nutshell, JSON is a way to serialize data using JavaScript syntax. It is fairly compact, and easy to use. Furthermore, it has become increasingly popular due to the growth of AJAX applications, and the browser’s native support of de-serializing JSON (via eval()).